She also points to these charts by Santosh Patnaik, using the openness of Nature Precedings to mine and analyze some data about how use of the site has developed over time. I found it interesting that while manuscript submissions have skyrocketed, the site hasn’t really developed as a hot place to put up conference papers or presentations. I would imagine that to those immersed in these disciplines, the reasons for this are clear — concerns about putting stuff up too early? Concerns about hurting future publication chances by making stuff freely available? I don’t know – but I do think it’s interesting to think about.

Dr. Patnaik estimates that the 500th paper will go up some time in the next few weeks – not bad for a year’s (collective, collaborative) effort.